[chris08876]

101 MURRAY UPDATE:

First things first: The 62-story, 740-foot tower going up at 101 Murray—where the St. John’s University building is being demolished as we speak—is indeed being called 111 Murray. (Demolition should be done by spring.) The developers are Fisher Brothers and Witkoff, and the architect is Kohn Pedersen Fox (with David Rockwell contributing to the interiors)—but there’s no official rendering yet, so we don’t know if these are accurate. The slick rep from Fisher Brothers showed a slide (above) that indicated the footprint will be as described in DOB filings. At first he said that the non-building parts would be “public park,” but later he backed off of that, saying it hadn’t been decided whether the park would be public. And then he backed farther off, saying that they hadn’t determined whether, in a bid to get an increased floor area ratio (from 9, I think, to 12), they would include affordable housing or a public plaza. Those DOB filings, however, seems to be out of date in several ways: The rep said there would, in fact, be retail in the tower, but no parking in the building. The “pavilion” on the east side is a separate four-story building with retail on the ground floor and 111 Murray mechanicals above it (because after Sandy, new buildings on West Street won’t be putting mechanicals below grade). Good news for nearby residents: The foundation will be drilled caissons rather than driven piles. Bad news for all of us who regularly walk along Murray Street: The busy northern sidewalk will be closed to pedestrians for at least three years.

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http://tribecacitizen.com/2015/02/12...february-2015/